The Georges in Peru

Missionary kids say things that you wouldn't hear at Christ Community Church in Omaha.  For example, tonight as we drove up to church, Sarah exclaimed despairingly, "Rats! They don't have a roof on the church yet!"  When you live in a desert you can get away without having a roof.  Since it was Father's Day, the pastor had all of the wives stand up and say why they were thankful for their husbands and give them a present (I haven't seen CCC do that either!  What's with that?).  And then kiss them.  Scandalous!  

Though, by far the funniest missionary kid line was from Ben when he was probably 6 or 7 watching a cartoon in which the city health inspector was coming to inspect the local bar and the bartender and patrons hurriedly cleaned up the place and one patron hid a rat in his mouth.  Ben laughed, "Look!  He's eating a rat that's not even cooked!"

In April I received an invitation to speak at the Lima Christian Missionary Alliance churches' missions week.  "We want you to speak on resistance to the Gospel in Africa."  "Despite having been in Africa twice, I don't really know much on this subject," I replied in a Mosiac "Why me?" fashion.  "But you know lots of missionaries in Africa that you can ask and present what they say!"  Gathering the information has been enlightening and a lot of work, and I just finished my powerpoint presentations today.  It's interesting how much of what I've read applies to Peru as well.   I go to Lima tomorrow and give my presentations on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Despite giving up a lucrative career in the USA so that I wouldn't have to wear a suit, I had to break down and buy one for this event.  I think it is the third one I've bought so far in my life.  Sarah pointed out that I've bought as many suits as I've run marathons.  I had one tailor-made here in Arequipa for about $80.  I'll have to keep running or it won't fit me soon!  Maybe one shouldn't get fit for a suit right after running a marathon?

Please pray that I can encourage Peruvians to heed God's call to be missionaries, if He is calling them to serve Him in Africa.

Allen & Amy

I've resigned myself to the fact that I am not 18 years old anymore.  I ran the Lima Marathon and hoped to finish around 3 hours and 45 minutes, but instead it took me almost 4 hours and 15 minutes.  I was 30 minutes faster than last year, mostly due to not being injured with Ilio-tibial-band syndrome.   The piranha bites would be a nice excuse for being slow, but they didn't really hurt until after the race.  The first 35 kilometers went pretty well (see smiling missionary below), but then I hit the infamous 'wall' and my pace suddenly dropped way down. 

While Amy and I were in Lima, the kids stayed with 4 different families from 4 different cultures.  1 Peruvian, 1 German, 1 American and 1 Californian.  To show our gratitude for watching the kids, we bought them donuts at the airport. It looked a bit self-contradictory wearing my marathon shirt carrying a bag with 3 dozen donuts in it getting on the airplane this afternoon.

The finishers' medals had a nice touch to them.  They had engraved on each one, "Boston, Corriendo por la Paz"  which means "Boston, Running for Peace".   I think I'm done running marathons until Deadwood 2015, when we are on home assignment.

Ever have problems getting the kids to stop their computer games, put down their books, not get another snack and get in the car so that you aren't late going to church?  Though it is hard to reproduce, we had a tremor (this is a frequent occurrence in Arequipa) as we were trying to get everyone moving.  "Let's move it!" It was especially timely, as the troops were harder than usual to get moving as we were going a bit early to pick up prizes along the way for the Sunday School kids that had memorized their verses.  Sorry no photos.  It wasn't that big of an earthquake.

Our toaster broke.  In America I would just throw it away, but in Peru, they fix everything.  So for about $3.50 the 'electrocista' took our toaster apart, soldered a loose wire back in place and reassembled it in about 30 minutes while I looked for a school book for Ben and bought groceries.  So, I saved a few bucks and kept one more toaster out of the landfill.